Under The Veil of Night

"Your body had already changed after some time. I don’t know that it takes this long for one to change."

On the floor, Professor Taren looked in Shiro’s direction with deep hatred. His bloodshot eyes were looking towards Shiro, as if itching to take a bite on him.

"You... ungrateful... brat! I.... AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA should.... have never let.... You... awa...ken.... AAAAAAAAAAAAA.....your.... ability!"

Shiro sneered. "You just let me be all this time and never even care for us because we’re nothing more than lab rat in your eyes. But you’re right on one thing."

Professor Taren’s eyes widened when he saw Shiro walked to him. His body was still changing as his mind was clouded due to the pain. The muscle on his hands was already completely deformed while his legs were still slowly changing. It bent and twist to abnormal direction. However, it didn’t hinder his vision as he could see Shiro crouched down before him. Afterwards, something cold was pressed to his forehead.

"If you had killed me back then, you would be still alive now. Farewell, Professor Taren."

"No...."

BANG!

Shiro shot the head of Professor Taren coldly. Blood poured out from the hole that the gun created. He knew the consequences very clearly, but he didn’t care anymore. There were too many blood debts that this man owed to the people around him.

’You take everything from me, Professor.’

Pulling the gun back, Shiro walked away. He watched as Professor Taren’s body was still undergoing changes. It seemed that the medicine was still working even though Professor Taren had already died. As a doctor, Shiro had to admit that the medicine was very amazing.

But it came at a high cost if not used well. If only the one who used it was someone else, it might be possible to develop medicine that would help humanity. A pity indeed, it fell in the wrong hand.

Glancing at the numerous tubes around him, Shiro sneered internally. His mind traced back his past, at the time when he was merely a young and happy kid. The test result that they did told them very clearly that he has potential beyond the limit. It meant he had the chance to be awakened.

Servo Family was not that big of a family. However, it was thriving because of their work in Black Street. They were famous as the one who produced great experts in their time. Many of them were powerful, but not to the point of awakening their ability.

However, his appearance destroyed everything. His parents refused to cooperate with the government, resulting in the destruction of his family. Afterwards, he was taken away and subjected to numerous inhumane experiments that he still could remember until now.

"I really hate this power back then," Shiro chuckled.

In his eyes, it was his power that brought doom to his life. However, he soon found out that his aunts were still alive because they were married away to the Nali Family. After years of unending despair, hope emerged once again.

When his aunt’s daughter was taken to the lab too, she was determined to bring her daughter out. For that, she asked that he accompanied her until she got out because it would be dangerous for a little kid to wander on the street alone.

His aunt and uncle prepared the way out while he waited near the promised place. They had instructed their daughter to get out, so the smart girl would surely follow after their instruction. And they were right. She got out with a boy trailing behind her.

He didn’t have any time to question her, so he could only lead them to the path that her parents’ had prepared. After they got out, they went their separate ways.

"I never thought that I’ll see her again until I meet the two wounded kids in front of my clinic."

He wanted to live a normal life, so he studied and entered medical school. However, he didn’t manage to obtain enough tuition money, so he could only open clinic illegally in Black Street.

It was the very clinic that became the place where he met with his little cousin again.

The reason why he helped her out in the past was not similar to what he told Tommy previously. He instantly recognized Kanae when he saw her because his blood reacted. It was the characteristic of every awakened person as every time they were near someone who has a close relationship with them, their blood would react first.

She was on the verge of death, and he didn’t have the heart to let her cousin die just like that. Her eyes back then were full of lives. Even though she was already close to death, she still didn’t have the thought to give up. Unlike him who only thought how to find a way out of the city, she was still full of determination to fight back.

Even if there was only a slight hope, she would never give up.

He extended his hand, wanting to help her once, but in the end, he just couldn’t let her be alone.

"If I never met with her, I think I’ll just forget about this hell and the horrible place where I was raised," Shiro murmured to himself.

For him, the government and this laboratory were the demon and hell that manifested in the human world. Meeting Kanae gave him hope, hope to erase this place forever. She never asked him to participate and come with her, but he was the one who asked her to let him join Fiore Group and be a part in her plan.

Shiro still could remember Kanae’s astonished face when he told her that he wanted to formally join Fiore Group when she came to tend her wound for the nth time.

...

*flashback: around 2 years before*

"Why? I thought you don’t want to have any relation with them again," Kanae asked back then.

Shiro merely looked at her and replied, "Seeing you fight just make me think that there might be hope."

"You know that you can just hide forever, right?"

"Will that solve the problem?"

Kanae didn’t reply. She just looked back at him with her dark irises seemed to see through him, reaching his inner heart. Even though she didn’t experience any of the experiments back then because she just stayed for a short time, she had known them from her parents.

Both of her parents were scientists, working for the government. They might not be part of the core members because they still have lives outside of the government, but they still have access to some facilities. The amount of knowledge that they could pass to Kanae was limited, but it was more than enough to show the dark side of this place.

She knew, which is why she didn’t want to drag him with her.